Leadership in college

[Jrhtiger]

Good morning,

I'm a junior in college at Auburn University (Auburn, Alabama). I was hoping to get some advice towards applying Leadership/"Extreme Ownership" in my daily college lifestyle. It can be difficult to balance the big 3 aspects as a student: Academics (grades), Work ($$), and having fun (free time to relax). My strategy has been to simply get through each week and adjusting my priorities appropriately. The life of a college student can be difficult, yet also a lot of fun, please elaborate on advice towards living a healthy lifestyle during these tough times.

Also, I have trouble creating and maintaining meaningful positive relationships: between classmates, prospective female girlfriends, and old friends from the past. Please give me strategy towards how I can really develop my friendships with others, while also discovering my own inner self. Any advice given would be awesome and very helpful. Thanks & War Eagle!

JR 

[mynewunit]

If it is hard to balance Academics, work, and fun, get rid of fun.
Start with leading yourself. I would create a list of daily musts. This would be insanely easy to accomplish. Something like 1 flight of stairs, 20 push ups, 1 cup of vegetables, 2 glasses of water, 10 minutes of review on each class, 10 minutes of preparation for each class, write in a journal, write a letter. Pick 3 or 4 of those. Then do each item every day.
Leading yourself means taking control. Taking control or you work, your sleep, your time, your fun, your money, your health, your diet, you exercise. These are all disciplines. Pick one and work on it for a month. Maybe a month without alcohol, or TV. Maybe a month of eating clean, or no sugar. Maybe a month of exercise, or no chasing girls. A good reference would be the Discipline Equals Freedom Field Manual.
Once you have tried these short term improvements, the next step is to get a coach or mentor. That person is just there to tell you your weaknesses and what you might need to do better to improve your future. If your writing is a weak point, intentionally practice that. Just because you can make it through a day of classes on less than 2 hours of sleep, doesn't mean you should try it more than once a week, or month. That is an example of what a mentor might tell you.
Once you have now made some progress on the leading yourself and the mentor, look for a place on campus to participate. Once you understand how that group works look to take on task and support the current leadership. When opportunities to lead arise, offer yourself. This will fail horribly if you can't lead yourself and you haven't had an external person coach you up on how to improve and prepare further.